As philosophical and scientific arguments for free will skepticism continue to gain traction, we are likely to see a fundamental shift in the way people think about free will and moral responsibility. Such shifts raise important practical and existential concerns: What if we came to disbelieve in free will? What would this mean for our interpersonal relationships, society, morality, meaning, and the law? What would it do to our standing as human beings? Would it cause nihilism and despair as some maintain or would it rather have a humanizing effect on our practices and policies, freeing us from the negative effects of belief in free will? In this chapter we consider the practical implications of free will skepticism and argue that life without free will and basic desert moral responsibility would not be as destructive as many people believe. We argue that prospects of finding meaning in life or of sustaining good interpersonal relationships, for example, would not be threatened. On treatment of criminals, we argue that although retributivism and severe punishment, such as the death penalty, would be ruled out, preventive detention and rehabilitation programs would still be justified. While we will touch on all these issues below, our focus will be primarily on this last issue.We begin in section I by considering two different routes to free will skepticism. The first denies the causal efficacy of the types of willing required for free will and receives its contemporary impetus from pioneering work in neuroscience by Benjamin Libet, Daniel Wegner, and John-Dylan Haynes. The second, which is more common in the philosophical literature, does not deny the causal efficacy of the will but instead claims that whether this causal efficacy is deterministic or indeterministic, it does not achieve the level of control to count as free will by the standards of the historical debate. We argue that while there are compelling objections to the first route - e.g., Al Mele (2009), Eddy Nahmias (2002, 2011), and Neil Levy (2005) - the second route to free will skepticism remains intact. In section II we argue that free will skepticism allows for a workable morality, and, rather than negatively impacting our personal relationships and meaning in life, may well improve our well-being and our relationships to others since it would tend to eradicate an often destructive form of moral anger. In section III we argue that free will skepticism allows for adequate ways of responding to criminal behavior - in particular, incapacitation, rehabilitation, and alternation of relevant social conditions - and that these methods are both morally justified and sufficient for good social policy. We present and defend our own preferred model for dealing with dangerous criminals, an incapacitation account built on the right to self-protection analogous to the justification for quarantine (see Pereboom 2001, 2013, 2014a; Caruso 2016a), and we respond to recent objections to it by Michael Corrado and John Lemos.


Asset market interconnectedness can give rise to significant contagion risks during periods of financial crises that extend beyond the risks associated with changes in volatilities and correlation. These channels include the transmission of shocks operating through changes in the higher order comoments of asset returns, including changes in coskewness arising from changes in the interaction between volatility and average returns across asset markets. These additional contagion channels have nontrivial implications for the pricing of options through changes in the payoff probability structure and more generally, in the management of financial risks. The effects of incorrectly pricing risk has proved to be significant during many financial crises, including the subprime crisis from mid 2007 to mid 2008, the Great Recession beginning 2008 and the European debt crisis from 2010. Using an exchange options model, the effects of changes in the comoments of asset returns across asset markets are investigated with special emphasis given to understanding the effects on hedging risk during financial crises. The results reveal that by not correctly pricing the risks arising from higher order moments during financial crises, there is significant mispricing of options, while hedged portfolios during noncrisis periods become exposed to price movements in times of crises.


Abstract In spite of a rather long period of investigations, the problem of HIV drug resistance remains unsolved, and more that, at present HIV-1 mutants resistant to all known nucleoside inhibitors being used in clinical therapy against the human immunodeficiency syndrome are discovered. In this study we selected HIV-1 mutants resistant to the nucleoside inhibitors of HIV reverse transcriptase (NRTI): 3′-azido-2′,3′-dideoxythymidine (AZT), 5′-phosphit 3′-azido-2′,3′- dideoxythymidine (ph-AZT), dideoxyinosine (ddI) and didehydrodeoxythymidine (d4T). Selection of resistant mutants was carried out by gradually increasing of drug concentration in the culture medium during propagation of the HIV-1EVK on fresh MT-4 cells. Phenotypic resistance was defined as an increase in ID50 of 160-fold for AZT, 8 for ph-AZT, 10 for ddI, 7 for d4T. In comparison studies it was determined that the viral resistance to these drugs was appeared variously in a similar conditions and duration of selection. The nucleotide sequences of the RT region of the HIV-1 variants were compared with the HIV-1EVK from "0" passage. For some of selected HIV-1 mutants NRTI resistance mutations were detected. Selected AZT resistant variants contained amino acid substitutions in positions D67A and K70R. Our studies was not revealed substitution at position 75 for ph-AZT resistant variants, whereas substitution at position L214F have been observed in both experiments using AZT and ph-AZT. Selected d4T resistant mutants contained amino acid substitutions in positions N54D and P52R. Selected ddI resistant mutants contained only one amino acid substitution in position P143S. Collection of drug-resistant mutants should prove to be a convenient tool for rapid investigations a new antiretroviral agents on cross drug-resistance.


With advances in additive manufacturing of metal components, commercial production of complex turbine components is becoming feasible. Thus, designers are not constrained to the limitations of conventional manufacturing methods. A new conjugate optimization technique is proposed, which is not computationally demanding and can be used when several heat transfer modes are working simultaneously. For this study, film cooling holes in the leading edge of a gas turbine airfoil are optimized without trial and error simulations. Since the machine learning technique is not dependent on thermal analysis, the optimization technique can be applied to any nonlinear problem. Film hole sizes are optimized to minimize coolant flow rate while reducing the temperature variations in the stationary vane. The technique used a transfer function based iterative optimization process with unsupervised machine learning that has been termed nonlinear optimization with replacement strategy (NORS). It uses a grading metric to replace the worst performing hole combinations with one that has been optimized with a given objective and several constraints. Optimized results show significant reductions in vertical temperature variations along the leading edge while minimizing coolant flow rate. Reduced temperature variation results in reduced thermal stresses. The finite element (FE) model and the associated correlations are not part of the unsupervised machine learning technique; therefore, the proposed optimization model can be generalized for any engineering design with multiple inputs for learning and multiple outputs for grading.


Abstract This paper describes the new mineral nataliyamalikite, the orthorhombic form of thallium iodide (TlI), from high-temperature fumaroles from the Avacha volcano, Kamchatka Peninsula, Russia. We also present some chemical analyses showing extreme enrichment of Tl in the volcanic gases at the Avacha volcano, and a review of thallium geochemistry that highlights the fascinating processes that led to the formation of nataliyamalikite. Nataliyamalikite occurs as pseudo-cubic nanocrystals (≤0.5 µm) within vacuoles in an As-(Te)-rich amorphous sulfur matrix and rarely as irregularly shaped aggregates up to ~50 µm in diameter within the amorphous sulfur matrix. Associated minerals include an unidentified Tl-As-S mineral, barite, and rare inclusions of a Re-Cu-bearing phase. The mean empirical composition based on four EDS analyses is Tl1.00(I0.95Br0.03Cl0.02), corresponding to the ideal formula TlI. Nataliyamalikite crystallizes in the orthorhombic system, space group Cmcm, which is consistent with the low-temperature (<175 °C) synthetic TlI polymorph. EBSD data reveal that some grains retain the cubic symmetry (Pm3m) of the high-temperature polymorph, although most analyzed grains display the orthorhombic symmetry. Single-crystal X-ray studies of material extracted by the focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) technique, and carried out on the MX2 macromolecular beamline of the Australian Synchrotron, determined the following cell dimensions: a = 4.5670(9), b = 12.803(3), c = 5.202(1) Å, V = 304.2(1) Å3, and Z = 4. The six strongest calculated X-ray reflections and their relative intensities are: 3.31 (100), 2.674 (73), 3.20 (43), 2.601 (28), 2.019 (21), and 2.284 Å (19). The combination of EBSD analysis (providing an efficient test of the crystallinity and crystal symmetry of a population of micrometer-sized grains) and synchrotron single-crystal X-ray micro-diffraction (beam size ~7.5 µm) on micro-aggregates extracted using FIB-SEM opens the way to the characterization of challenging specimen—in this case, the sulfur matrix is highly beam sensitive, and the nataliyamalikite grains could not be isolated using optical microscopy. The high-temperature (>600 °C) sulfidic (~1.2 wt% S) vapors at Avacha are extremely enriched in thallium; with 34 ppm, they contain an order of magnitude more Tl than the richest volcanic gases analyzed to date and ~100× more Tl than most metal-rich fumarolitic fluids associated with volcanic arcs. The formation of nataliyamalikite illustrates the complex processes that control thallium geochemistry in magmatic arc systems. Thallium minerals have now been reported in andesitic (Avacha), basaltic (Tolbachik, Kamchatka), as well as rhyolitic (Vulcano, Eolian Islands, Italy) volcanoes. Ultimately, these thallium minerals result from the transfer of thallium from subducted sediments to volcanic gases in arc volcanoes. We suggest that the extremely thallium-enriched vapors from which nataliyamalikite formed result from complex and transient interactions between Tl-rich sulfosalt melts and magmatic vapors, a process that may be important in controlling metal distribution in boiling epithermal systems.


Through the research on the mass concrete slab construction technology of Dalian World Finance Center, this paper has systematically summarized the integrated construction technology of super high-rise mass concrete slab, including key issues such as mix design technology, pouring time selection, construction elements and temperature testing technology. The one-time continuous pouring of 8000m3's concrete requires about 66 hours and no temperature cracks appear in the concrete surface. A number of similar engineering practices indicate that the maximum adiabatic temperature rise is mainly subjected to the control of concrete mix composition and internal and the temperature difference between inside and outside is mainly controlled by the moisture and insulation measures, which are the two major critical factors controlling mass concrete slab temperature cracks, providing references to future similar mass concrete construction.


The literature on electoral cycles has developed in two distinct phases. The first one considered the existence of non-rational (naive) voters whereas the second one considered fully rational voters. In our perspective, an intermediate approach is more interesting, i.e. one that considers learning voters, which are boundedly rational. In this sense, neural networks may be considered as learning mechanisms used by voters to perform a classification of the incumbent in order to distinguish opportunistic (electorally motivated) from benevolent (non-electorally motivated) behaviour. The paper shows in which circumstances a neural network, namely a perceptron, can resolve that problem of classification. This is done by considering a model allowing for output persistence, which is a feature of aggregate supply that, indeed, may make it impossible to correctly classify the incumbent.


Given the increasing threat of terrorism and spread of terrorist organizations, it is of vital importance to understand the properties of such organizations and to devise successful strategies for destabilizing them or decreasing their efficiency. However, intelligence information on these organizations is often incomplete, inaccurate or simply not available. This makes the study of terrorist networks and the evaluation of destabilization strategies difficult. In this paper, we propose a computational methodology for realistically simulating terrorist networks and evaluating alternative destabilization strategies. We proceed to use this methodology to evaluate and conduct a sensitivity analysis of the impact of various destabilization strategies under varying information surveillance regimes. We find that destabilization strategies that focus on the isolation of individuals who are highly central are ineffective in the long run as the network will heal itself as individuals who are nearly structurally equivalent to the isolated individuals "move in" and fill the communication gaps.


It is unlikely that this evidence will be persuasive justification for computerising repeat prescribing. Much more convincing are likely to be the other improvements identified by Dr Roland and colleagues, in particular better information recorded about repeat prescribing and the opportunities that computers can offer for audit and clinical review.' These, unfortunately, are likely to create work for the doctor, not save it. J R GARBER


Organized by : Herman Kingma, PhD, Division of Balance Disorders Research : Maastricht Research Institute Brain and Behaviour, Health Care : Department of ORL and Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospital Maastricht. E-mail : H.Kingman!kno.azm.nl and Jacques Duysens, MD, PhD, Department of Medical Physics and Biophysics, University of Nijmegan, KUN. E-mail : jaak!mbfys.kun.nl ; Health care : SMK-research, Sint Maartenskliniek, Nijmegen, The Netherlands. E-mail : j.duysens!smk-research.nl .


Controlled trials have demonstrated the efficacy of methotrexate (MTX) in the induction and maintenance of remission in patients with luminal Crohn's disease, but its use outside of specialist centres remains limited. We present a case series of 24 patients treated with parenteral MTX in a district general hospital. Patients received an induction course of 25 mg weekly for 16 weeks, followed by maintenance doses of 15 mg weekly. Nineteen patients achieved remission during the induction period. Of these, 10 were maintained in remission for more than 12 months. In total, there were six relapses within 1 year and five drug withdrawals due to side effects during the observation period. Of the six relapses, three required surgical intervention (with two of these re-starting methotrexate postoperatively) and three were recommenced on maintenance MTX after a short period at an increased dose. Our results are similar to outcomes achieved in large, randomized, controlled trials and indicate that MTX can be used safely and effectively for the treatment of refractory Crohn's disease in the district general hospital setting.


ABSTRACT Transportation networks play a crucial role in human and animal societies. For a transportation network to be efficient, it must have adequate capacity to meet traffic demand. Network design becomes increasingly difficult in situations where traffic demand can change unexpectedly. In humans, network design is often constrained by path dependency because it is difficult to move a road once it is built. A similar issue theoretically faces pheromone-trail-laying social insects; once a trail has been laid, positive feedback makes re-routing difficult because new trails cannot compete with continually reinforced pre-existing trails. In the present study, we examined the response of Argentine ant colonies and their trail networks to variable environments where resources differ in quality and change unexpectedly. We found that Argentine ant colonies effectively tracked changes in food quality such that colonies allocated the highest proportion of foragers to the most rewarding feeder. Ant colonies maximised access to high concentration feeders by building additional trails and routes connecting the nest to the feeder. Trail networks appeared to form via a pruning process in which lower traffic trails were gradually removed from the network. At the same time, we observed several instances where new trails appear to have been built to accommodate a surge in demand. The combination of trail building when traffic demand is high and trail pruning when traffic demand is low results in a demand-driven network formation system that allows ants to monopolise multiple dynamic resources. Highlighted Article: Ants track changes in food quality by building flexible transportation networks.


ABSTRACT Guo, J., 2020. Credit risk management and control in a maritime supply chain trade network. In: Gong, D.; Zhang, M., and Liu, R. (eds.), Advances in Coastal Research: Engineering, Industry, Economy, and Sustainable Development. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 106, pp. 109–112. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Maritime transport is the link of international trade. In recent years, China's international trade volume has increased dramatically, and its marine transportation business has expanded rapidly. Its supply chain risk control system should also be upgraded to meet the market demand. This study finds that contract performance ability is the biggest source of risk. Through the comprehensive suggestions put forward in this paper, the risk rate of supply chain can be effectively controlled through property insurance, credit derivatives, and a reasonable project packaging scheme. At the same time, this paper suggests that the marine transportation supply chain should get rid of the limitation of the purchase contract and launch the supply chain products for retail to advantageous customers, which can reduce the comprehensive risk of the supply chain to a greater extent.


Colorectal cancer (CRC) is one of the most common forms of cancer worldwide, with an annual incidence of more than 1 million cases. Despite advancements in the management of CRC, mortality remains high. Accumulating evidence indicates that CRC is a heterogeneous disease, which affects outcome beyond what can be predicted by disease stage and other conventional prognostic factors. Thus, there is a great need to identify new biomarkers to enable a more accurate prognostication, and to help select patients for adjuvant treatment. The aim of this thesis was to investigate the associations of a series of putative biomarkers with survival, treatment response and clinicopathological factors in a large cohort of incident CRC, with special attention to sex differences. The study group consisted of tumours from 557 incident cases of CRC in the Malmo Diet and Cancer Study (MDCS). The tumours, assembled in tissue microarrays, were evaluated for expression of cyclin D1, mismatch repair proteins, beta-catenin and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) by immunohistochemistry, and further, EGFR gene copy number (GCN) alterations by brightfield double-in situ hybridization. In addition, KRAS and BRAF mutational status was assessed by pyrosequencing. Associations with clinicopathological and investigative factors were explored by Chi Square and Spearman's correlation tests, and Kaplan-Meier analysis and Cox proportional hazards modelling were applied for survival analysis. We hereby found that nuclear cyclin D1 expression was associated with female sex and a favorable prognosis, although not independently, in male, but not in female, CRC. Microsatellite instability (MSI) correlated to distinctive clinicopathological features, cyclin D1 expression, and independently predicted a good prognosis in stage III-IV CRC. Moreover, beta-catenin overexpression correlated independently with a prolonged survival from stage III-IV CRC, and was associated with microsatellite stable (MSS) tumours. We also observed that KRAS codon 13 mutation predicted a poor prognosis in female CRC, but not independently of established prognostic factors. KRAS and BRAF mutations were mutually exclusive, and correlated with MSS and MSI, respectively. BRAF mutation was independently associated with a reduced survival in male patients with MSS CRC. Furthermore, both EGFR protein expression and GCN alterations were associated with a reduced survival in stage III-IV CRC, the latter, however, not independently of established prognostic factors. EGFR protein expression correlated significantly with EGFR GCN alterations, although a substantial proportion of EGFR expressing tumours displayed a normal GCN, and vice versa. Finally, EGFR alterations were significantly associated with a reduced survival in curatively treated patients with stage III-IV disease receiving adjuvant oxaliplatin. In conclusion, the results from this thesis demonstrate several relevant associations of the investigative biomarkers with prognosis and treatment response in CRC. Moreover, substantial sex differences in the clinicopathological correlates and prognostic significance of some of the biomarkers were observed. (Less)


I invert the dominant perspective of the consumer in academic work on ethnic food by inserting the habits, memories, work and dreams of immigrant entrepreneurs in an examination of taste in an American city. Although such a perspective has been ignored in most theoretical discussions, taste has for long been co-produced by immigrants and natives in American cities. Taste is transactional in a number of ways, minimally between producers, consumers and commentators, but also between domains of value—economic, aesthetic, and ethical.


We use the results of exact replica calculations on randomly cross-linked networks of Gaussian phantom chains in order to study the effect of quenched fluctuations of local crosslink density on the elastic response of the network on all length scales. We verify Alexander's conjecture about the existence of length scales on which rigidity and affinity are established and show that they depend on the local crosslink density as well as on the state of deformation of the whole sample. The non-affine character of the deformation in the intermediate range between these length scales is discussed. We calculate the fractions of elastically effective and affinely deformed chains in the network and find that while the former increases, the latter decreases as a function of elongation. We consider the limit of applicability of linear elasticity and estimate the stress-carrying fraction of the chains at the onset the non-linear regime. Experimental tests of our predictions are proposed.


Injecting discrete logical constraints into neural network learning is one of the main challenges in neuro-symbolic AI. We find that a straight-through-estimator, a method introduced to train binary neural networks, could effectively be applied to incorporate logical constraints into neural network learning. More specifically, we design a systematic way to represent discrete logical constraints as a loss function; minimizing this loss using gradient descent via a straight-through-estimator updates the neural network's weights in the direction that the binarized outputs satisfy the logical constraints. The experimental results show that by leveraging GPUs and batch training, this method scales significantly better than existing neuro-symbolic methods that require heavy symbolic computation for computing gradients. Also, we demonstrate that our method applies to different types of neural networks, such as MLP, CNN, and GNN, making them learn with no or fewer labeled data by learning directly from known constraints.


The aims of this dissertation were to investigate alcohol-related seizures in clinical neurological practice. We wanted to assess the extent of this problem, to classify the seizures, and to investigate methods to improve the clinical diagnosis of such seizures. We propose an arbitrary but simple and reproducible way of diagnosing alcohol-related seizures and alcohol withdrawal seizures. Papers I and II relate to seizure classification and the extent of the problem in relation to the level and weekly pattern of alcohol use. Paper III investigates the performance of various biological markers as aids in the diagnosis of alcohol-related seizures. Paper IV explores pitfalls in the result interpretation for two methods for detection of CDT in patients with neurological disorders. Paper V investigates the utility of standard EEG for the identification of alcohol-related seizures. Even though the general alcohol consumption in our region is low, every third patient with an epileptic seizure leading to hospitalisation had hazardous alcohol consumption.Evidence of focal lesions or focal seizure start was found in a high proportion of alcohol-related seizures. All such seizures were secondarily generalized and thus, we challenge the establishment impression that the vast majority of alcohol-related seizures are primarily generalized. Binge drinking (more than six drinks for men or four drinks for women, in a single drinking occasion) was common, but had little influence on seizure susceptibility or timing of seizures. In contrast to prior knowledge, we found that in some patients there was no time lag from cessation of drinking to the occurrence of a seizure, but falling intake levels prior to withdrawal seizures were demonstrated. This indicates that a state of relative withdrawal while still drinking may be sufficient to induce a seizure. Carbohydrate-deficient transferring (CDT) is the most accurate biomarker for alcohol use and good adjunct to the diagnosis of alcohol-related seizures, but its accuracy does not compete with a good clinical investigation. Generally poor accuracy should be expected for fertile women. Women on enzyme-inducing antiepileptic drugs who drink no or little alcohol seem to be at risk of having false positive CDT. Other variables associated with increased CDT were low body mass index, or having total transferring levels outside normal range. A definitely abnormal EEG suggests epilepsy or symptomatic seizures unrelated to alcohol use. The predictive value of a normal EEG is limited, but the typical post-ictal finding in alcohol-related seizures is nevertheless a normal low-amplitude EEG record. The best method for identification of alcohol-related seizures is a clinical work-up based on a thorough medical history. The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) provides a reliable measure of drinking habits. CDT is a good supplement to the clinical diagnosis when there is doubt, if factors associated with false-positive values are appreciated. The diagnostic value of EEG is limited.


The application and utilization of sequence data has been found very informative in the characterization and phylogenetic relationship of different crops species. This study aimed to use bioinformatics tools to characterize the matK gene in some selected legumes with special reference to pigeon pea [ cajanus cajan (L.)Millsp] matK sequence as a quarry sequence. Nucleotide and amino acid sequence of matK gene of 10 legumes were retrieved from NCBI database and analysed for homology, physiochemical properties, motifs, GC content as well as phylogenetic relationships. Results showed that the nucleotide and amino acid sequence lengths of this gene among the selected legumes differs.  Its nucleotide length varied between 631-1580bp, while the amino acids sequence varied between 21 and 509 residues. P. tetragonolobus  matK and  C. cajan matK sequences had percentage identity of 88% while V. sativa had the lowest percentage identity of 70%. G.tomentella and P. tetragonolobus matK sequence shared the same percentage similarity of 91% with C.cajan while V. sativa had the least (78%) with C.cajan . The motif predicted were tyrosine kinase phosphorylation site, N-myristoylation site, N-glycosylation site, protein kinase phosphorylation site, casein kinase II phosphorylation site and cAMP- and –cGMP dependent protein kinase phosphorylation site. However, microbodies C-terminal targeting site was only predicted in the amino acid sequence of matK gene of P. sativum and C.cajan . Phylogenetically, two major clades were revealed with P.sativum , V.sativa , and C. arientinum matK gene sequence in clade A and matK gene sequence of P.tetragonolobus, C. cajan, G. tomentella, P.vulgaris, V.unguiculata, V. angularis and V. radiate in clade B. It showed that clade A diverged from the ancestry legume approximately 39MYA while legume sequences in clade B diverged from the ancestor about 57MYA. GC content of the nucleotide sequence of matK gene of V. sativa was highest (31.37%) with the range in the selected legume varying between 7.29%-31.37%. The secondary structure of amino acids sequence of matK gene in the selected legume revealed the alpha helix (34.14%-41.27%), extended strand (11.56%-20.99%) and random coil (39.48%-51.76%). The major domain architecture found in the amino acid sequence were single and double types.  Implicitly, though maturase K gene sequences in the selected legumes differ in lengths physiochemical properties, GC content and motif. The result of this study revealed that C.cajan matK gene sequences is closely related to that of P. tetragonolobus but distant to V. unguiculata as well as P. vulgaris .


Recent respiratory developments have altered the management of children with severe neuromuscular disease, and in some cases changed the natural history of the conditions. These developments include improvements in diagnosis; a greater availability of ventilatory support techniques, including noninvasive modes; and better functional scoring systems that enable global muscle function and the impact of treatment to be evaluated. Greater choices can make for more difficult decision making, and the ability to prolong survival brings with it opportunities, but also ethical dilemmas. Clearer outcome information and assessment of the benefits and burdens of ventilatory support for the child and family should aid decision making. In many conditions there is no relationship between functional ability, the need for ventilatory support, and quality of life. Noninvasive ventilation combined with cough assistance is usually preferred to invasive ventilation and is likely to reduce respiratory morbidity. In situations where noninvasive ventilation does not extend survival, it may have a role in palliating symptoms and allowing the child to be cared for at home.


We consider generalized variational non-local models of media with fields of defects and show that the methods of continuum mechanics are very effective in modeling connected reversible and irreversible thermomechanical processes. It is postulated that the tensor of free distortions is determined only by the spherical tensor, which is interpreted as a dilatation associated with a change in temperature. A variational model of coupled thermoelasticity and hyperbolic thermal conductivity is under construction. It describes the general case of non-locality, when gradient properties are determined by scale parameters that are responsible for both mechanical and temperature effects. The analysis of boundary value problems is given, the physical interpretation of all model parameters is given through known thermomechanical parameters. We also offer a variation model of irreversible thermodynamic processes, which is based on the principle of L.I. Sedov. In this case, the variation form for the dissipative part of the change in energy is based on the non-integrability condition proposed by the authors.


BACKGROUND
Undetected developmental dysplasia of the hip can progress to hip instability, which can lead to the development of early osteoarthritis. The purpose of the present study was to determine the reliability and accuracy of the Shenton line in the diagnosis of acetabular dysplasia in the skeletally mature patient.

METHODS
Supine anteroposterior pelvic radiographs were obtained for a total of 128 hips in patients with a diagnosis of developmental dysplasia of the hip prior to pelvic osteotomy (sixty-four hips, including thirty-two left and thirty-two right hips) and normal patients (sixty-four hips, including thirty-two left and thirty-two right hips). Six orthopaedic surgeons determined if the Shenton line was broken or intact to determine interobserver reliability. Four observers reviewed the randomized radiographs again after four weeks to determine intraobserver reliability.

RESULTS
The mean intraclass kappa value was 0.90 (range, 0.79 to 0.97), indicating excellent agreement between each reviewer's primary and secondary reviews. The kappa estimate for interobserver reliability among all six reviewers was 0.80 (95% confidence interval, 0.75 to 0.84), indicating an excellent agreement. The determination of a normal or abnormal Shenton line had a mean sensitivity of 83.3% (range, 60.9% to 93.8%) and specificity of 98.4% (range, 92.2% to 100%).

CONCLUSIONS
The Shenton line is a reliable and accurate radiographic marker to detect superior femoral head subluxation indicative of acetabular dysplasia.


The aim of this thesis is to provide a detailed overview of local bone regenerative options that would profit trauma, orthopedic and maxillofacial surgery. In the first part of this thesis a "cell-based" method to regenerate bone is investigated. For this, mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) are differentiated, and so-called pellets of cartilage are made. These pellets can develop into bone, comparable to endochondral ossification. At first, human chondrogenic pellets were placed in a bone defect of an immuno-incompetent rat. We saw significant bone formation, but this was donor dependent. Also, to translate this into the clinic, pellets need to be kept in the bone defect. Therefore, fibrin, a protein already present in natural bone healing, was used. In this second experiment, normal rats were used, which meant that there was a xenograft. We did indeed see an immune response of the rat against the MSCs. However, the xenogeneic cells also induced bone regeneration. Subsequently, in the second part of this thesis the "material-based" bone regeneration method was investigated. First, fibrin was used in a non-union model, as its permeability to (bone)cells make it a good carrier. If we add a small amount of the growth factor bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) to fibrin, there was exceptional bone growth with remodeling of cortical bone in a short amount of time. Since fibrin itself does not give stability, other bone substitutes should be used in case stability is necessary. We showed that the more ductile porous pure titanium generated greater bone tissue, but was also less strong compared to porous titanium alloy. Furthermore, we showed that bone regeneration in titanium bone substitutes is improved when BMP is added to fibrin and placed into porous titanium scaffolds. The original hypothesis was that high molecular weight fibrin would enable better bone regeneration than the standard clinically applied fibrin (Tissucol), because it would improve cell migration and angiogenesis. However, it makes no difference which fibrin is used. No side effects were seen in any of the studies using BMP. In the last part of this thesis we tested whether shockwave therapy is suitable as a "stimulus-based" method for bone regeneration. This method concerns the use of a device that produces a divergent shockwave, in other words electrohydraulically generated impulses. Three different porous bone substitutes were treated with shockwave therapy and more bone was visualised in both the bone substitute hydroxyapatite and in porous titanium. The bone substitute tricalcium phosphate, showed no positive effect of shockwaves. Also we noticed that shockwave therapy generated more bone around cortical screws and provided a stronger fixation of these screws, compared to cancellous placed screws. However, we also saw the formation of an extra cortex in some rats and the old cortex disappeared. Encouraged by these results we conducted a clinical pilot study to investigate if shockwave therapy could induce bone formation in patients without evoking side effects. The study showed there were indeed no side effects of shockwave therapy, but unfortunately there was no increase in bone density.


Nearly fourteen years ago forty-six states and the nation's major tobacco manufacturers entered into the Master Settlement Agreement, the largest civil settlement in United States history. This Article examines a current controversy under the MSA that may require some or all of the states to forfeit over $7 billion in MSA payments to tobacco manufacturers. The Article focuses particularly on the liability exposure that New York faces in the dispute and how New York's seemingly unrelated policy of not collecting excise taxes on cigarettes sold on Native American reservations may end up costing the state billions of dollars in MSA payments. The current dispute under the MSA and New York's particular circumstances in that dispute are explored in detail to extract pertinent lessons that states should consider when entering into future landmark settlement agreements. They include lessons relating to the terms of the settlement agreement itself, but also relating to the use of litigation by state attorneys general as a means of changing public policy.


The 21st century is an era of 'Computing Technology' that has influenced every domain of human life. Such a high involvement and usage of Computing Technology have enhanced the need and requirement of computing education. There is a need to develop computational thinking skills of students aiming at students' psychological and behavioral transformation favorably towards 'Computing Technology'. The current research is carried out sampling 150 students from various universities in China. The objectives of this study include finding out how educational institutions and teachers can enhance the computational skills of students and what motivational strategies can significantly help students to undertake training programs and acquire advanced computational skills. This study also analyzes how to develop computing talent and computational thinking among university students. The study recommends that universities should make efforts to improve students' computational capabilities by taking training initiatives that would help students to improve their computational skills and prepare themselves for the need and demands of the world's job market.


Through its long and honorable history, democracy has shown great imaginative ability to devise institutions and procedures that are capable of solving problems that democracy's political process of decision prompts. Risks to democracy come today from the complex world of information and political opinion formation, that panoply of means encompassing the indirect power of ideas that free speech nourishes. This is the main object of this article. I show how representative democracy pertains not only to the election of government agents and the building of state institutions; it also designates a form of political participation and, moreover, a way of forming political ideas and judgments in the ongoing creation of public opinion. Forming political judgments, contributing to shaping public opinion: these are the loci we I propose we turn to in order to grasp the risks contemporary democracy is facing, and to devise the normative solutions to them; solutions that do not violate the democratic principles and do not narrow the domain of politics.


Stream restoration is a major focus of watershed and stream management activities in the United States, with in excess of $1 billion spent annually. The broader goals of restoration are typically improvement of water quality (principally reduction of sediment concentrations) and aquatic habitat, with a dynamically stable stream (one that may shift laterally through erosion and deposition while maintaining roughly constant dimensions) as an ideal. However, in our experience, specific restoration projects are most often motivated by problems of stream bank erosion, either as a source of sediment or as a threat to adjacent land and structures. One of the arguments used to justify bank erosion control is that sediment is a major pollutant degrading water quality and aquatic habitat, with stream bed and bank erosion being significant if not the largest sources of sediment in many streams. This view is strongly rooted in conditions of the early- and mid-20th century, a time when soil erosion rates were high and many streams in agricultural regions of the United States had experienced high rates of sedimentation and floodplain aggradation for a century or more. Just as anthropogenic erosion caused very large increases in stream sediment loads, conservation actions of the last…


The understanding of the dynamics of fishing vessels is of great interest to characterize the spatial distribution of the fishing effort and to define sustainable fishing strategies. It is also a prerequisite for anticipating changes in fishermen's activity in reaction to management rules, economic context, or evolution of exploited resources. Analyzing the trajectories of individual vessels offers promising perspectives to describe the activity during fishing trips. A hidden Markov model with two behavioral states (steaming and fishing) is developed to infer the sequence of non-observed fishing vessel behavior along the vessel trajectory based on Global Positioning System (GPS) records. Conditionally to the behavior, vessel velocity is modeled with an autoregressive process. The model parameters and the sequence of hidden behavioral states are estimated using an expectation–maximization algorithm, coupled with the Viterbi algorithm that captures the most credible joint sequence of hidden states. A simulation approach was performed to assess the influence of contrast between the model parameters and of the path length on the estimation performances. The model was then fitted to four original GPS tracks recorded with a time step of 15 min derived from volunteer fishing vessels operating in the Channel within the IFREMER RECOPESCA project. Results showed that the fishing activity performed influenced the estimates of the velocity process parameters. Results also suggested future inclusion of variables such as tide currents within the ecosystem approach of fisheries. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Purification of Chromium (VI) contaminated water is essential as it is toxic. The present study deals with the removal of Chromium (VI) using activated carbon derived from Ficus racemosa bark (FRBAC) as low cost adsorbent. The adsorption technique is effective and economical for practical applicability. The influence of contact time, adsorbent dose, Cr (VI) ion concentration and pH on adsorption phenomenon have also been investigated and reported. The maximum adsorption capacity of the adsorbent under study for Cr (VI) was found to be 92.3% at optimum pH 5. The results indicate that the adsorption process is favorable for Frendlich and Langmuir models.


Dipping objectives were tested for multi-photon laser scanning microscopy, since their large working distances are advantageous for thick specimens and the absence of a coverslip facilitates examination of living material. Images of fluorescent bead specimens, particularly at wavelengths greater than 850 nm showed defects consistent with spherical aberration. Substituting methanol for water as the immersion medium surrounding the beads corrected these defects and produced an increase in fluorescence signal intensity. The same immersion method was applied to two representative biological samples of fixed tissue: mouse brain labeled with FITC for tubulin and mouse gut in which the Peyer's patches were labeled with Texas Red bilosomes. Tissue morphology was well preserved by methanol immersion of both tissues; the two-photon-excited fluorescence signal was six times higher than in water and the depth of penetration of useful imaging was doubled. No modification of the microscope was needed except the provision of a ring to retain a sufficient depth of methanol for imaging.


Abstract The snow-generating elements associated with most snow storms have been observed in previous radar studies only in vertical section. Constant-altitude upper-level maps, composed from a series of plan-position-indicator photographs at progressively increasing elevation angle, reveal the plan pattern formed by these cells at the generating level. Individual cells are rather shapeless, but with all dimensions within a factor of two of 1 mile, and persist for hours. Their velocity equals the generating-level wind, with a mean difference (including errors of meausrement) of 1.6 knots. The cells occur in groups of several hundred, either randomly distributed over an area of about 104 mi2 or in line arrays each about 5 mi by 75 mi over the same area. Whether or not arrays are formed, and the orientation of the arrays relative to the generating level wind when they do occur, are related to the component of wind shear along the wind at the generating level.


The article describes proposed by the authors methodology of analysis of the Russian mutual funds. The aim of this methodology is to find out how attractive they are to investors and if they are able to provide the possibility of obtaining higher returns with less risk than the market in general. The study determines what type of fund management (active or passive) is more optimal. It also explains the effectiveness of focusing on past performance of the funds for making future investments. In addition, the ability of the management companies to repeat their past results is analyzed. Moreover, it is shown if it makes sense to focus on management companies that achieved the best results in the past while making decisions about future investments. These and other results achieved in this article reveal the features of the Russian market of collective investments and allow investors to form more competent policy of mutual funds' investments. The methodology proposed by the authors is universal. Its application for the analysis of the other markets of collective investments will allow revealing their features.


In our paper, we briefly discuss the outlook for the main agricultural sectors in Hungary until 2013, and present some of the latest results of our modelling work at the Research Institute for Agricultural Economics (AKI). In addition, we provide a short methodological overview of the applied modelling tools. To strengthen the quantitative analysis capacity during the pre-accession period, AKI developed a partial equilibrium model (Hungarian Simulation Model or HUSIM) by the end of the 1990's. Since then, AKI has been regularly carrying out agricultural policy analyses by applying this economic model. After gathering experiences with HUSIM, strong demand was raised on a modelling tool that enables us to investigate the structural changes in agriculture in more depth by focusing on the main sectors and their interrelationships. According to this concept, a partial equilibrium model, FARM-T was developed, which uses farm groups as agents to investigate the changes in agricultural output and the underlying structural progress. The first part of our paper describes the concept and structure of this model in more detail. In the second part, we focus our investigation on the changes in production structure and competitiveness on domestic and foreign markets. Only a few years after EU accession, Hungarian farmers again face considerable challenges: due to the full or partial decoupling of Complementary National Direct Payments already in 2007, the expected introduction of the Single Payment Scheme (SPS) in 2009, the probable abolishing of the EU cereals intervention regime, and the compulsory blending of bio-fuels, major changes in the agricultural sectors are foreseen. But structural problems and the lack of capital for modernization may slow down the adjustment process.


Bismuth telluride (Bi2Te3) and its alloys are considered to be the best avaiable materials for near room-temperature thermoelectric applications. Moreover, because lowdimensional thermoelectric materials are expected to have a higher figure of merit due to quantum confinement effects, Bi2Te3 nanowires have been studied extensively. However, their memory switching behavior has never been studied in Bi2Te3 nanowires. Here, we report for the first time on reversible memory switching effects in Bi2Te3 nanowires fabricated using anodized aluminum oxide (AAO) membranes. We find that Bi2Te3 nanowires show a reversible crystalline-amorphous phase change induced by temperature or electric field, similar to that reported for chalcogenide materials (Ge-Sb-Te alloys, GST), and we demonstrate that Bi2Te3 nanowires show considerable promise as building blocks for phase change random access memory (PRAM).


Agricultural seed left in harvested fields is an important source of energy for migrating and wintering waterfowl. However, rates of seed loss from germination, decomposition or depredation have not been quantified for corn, soybean, or grain sorghum. Because seed loss rates directly influence habitat quality and management recommendations for waterfowl and other wildlife, we estimated rates of germination, decomposition, and depredation for scattered seed and aggregate seed heads in 98 harvested corn, soybean and grain sorghum study plots across Tennessee from September – January 2006–07 and 2007–08. Total seed loss in plots between harvest and January was more than 80%. Scattered corn seed was lost primarily (37%–68%) to depredation, whereas soybean and grain sorghum seed were lost mostly (≥35%) to decomposition. Rates of germination generally decreased and decomposition rates increased from October through January for scattered corn and grain sorghum. Rates of loss were related to ambient temperature, relative humidity, and time since harvest. Seed aggregated on seed heads (e.g., corn cobs) was lost more slowly than scattered seed. Where crops are planted for wildlife, harvest should be delayed if possible to reduce seed loss and land managers should consider planting corn instead of grain sorghum and soybean because seed of the latter species decompose rapidly.


medicine. The systematic collection and storage of samples of biological material and associated clinical data is revolutionizing biomedical research. Biobanks are extremely useful in the study of multi-factorial diseases, such as cancer and diabetes. They can be used to discover particular variations of diseases or novel therapeutic targets, and thus accelerate drug discovery in the scope of personalized medicine. However, human biobank development also presents a number of legal and ethical challenges, as well as key governance issues that ought to be resolved, in order to achieve a satisfying level of political, financial and public acceptance. This paper discusses these topics by emphasizing in the European landscape, as exemplified by the Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure (BBMRI) initiative. Aspects of patient education and the role of primary health practitioners in fasciliatating the process are also contemplated.


This paper discusses welding problems of today and the possibilities for tomorrow for companies in the welding industry. By leaving old welding procedures based on traditions and applying new scientifically developed welding demands and procedures there is a vast potential to improve strength performance of the structures and increased competitiveness regarding weld work for the companies. Unfortunately, no changes are done easily and quickly and this paper gives proposals how changes can be done efficiently.


: This paper presents the voltage problem location classification using performance of Least Squares Support Vector Machine (LS-SVM) and Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ) in electrical power system for proper voltage problem location implemented by IEEE 39 bus New-England. The data was collected from the time domain simulation by using Power System Analysis Toolbox (PSAT). Outputs from simulation data such as voltage, phase angle, real power and reactive power were taken as input to estimate voltage stability at particular buses based on Power Transfer Stability Index (PTSI).The simulation data was carried out on the IEEE 39 bus test system by considering load bus increased on the system. To verify of the proposed LS-SVM its performance was compared to Learning Vector Quantization (LVQ). The results showed that LS-SVM is faster and better as compared to LVQ. The results also demonstrated that the LS-SVM was estimated by 0% misclassification whereas LVQ had 7.69% misclassification.


Narcoanalysis (narcosynthesis) as well as psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy (psychoanalytic psychotherapy) are both, in my opinion, practical and useful short-term methods of therapy in psychosomatic disorders. Psychoanalytic psychoterapy may also be used as an alternative to narcoanalysis when the latter method decisively fails the therapist. In selecting candidates for psychotherapy in psychosomatic practice, 3 essential factors should be taken into consideration, viz. the time of onset of the illness, the patient's personality structure and his intellectual capacities.


Cleft foot is a gross deformity of the lower extremities which has a definite tendency to hereditary transmission. Because of the remarkable variations presented by the individual patients, a distinct description of the abnormality is quite difficult. However, as Lewis 1 stated, "the fundamental, or most constant lesion appears in the form of cleft-feet, a lesion which is symmetrical as regards the two sides of the body. The clefting falls at the second or third digit, and is associated with defect of the corresponding bones (Ectrodactylism). The portions of the foot separated by the cleft are each welded by skin, or bony union, into a single mass, conical in form and terminating in one or more distorted joints." From antiquity, malformations and monstrosities have intrigued observers. The earliest reference is that in the Bible. 2 "And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature


Purpose

This paper aims to answer a major challenge in the success of electronic government (e-government) implementation, viz., public participation via continual use intention and electronic word-of-mouth (eWoM). This study tries to provide some control by examining the impact of e-government quality on public trust and with continual use intention and eWoM. This study adopts the eminent information systems (IS) success model and expands the trust dimension into a multi-dimensional trust.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were collected using questionnaires distributed among e-government service users in Indonesia. In total, 293 respondents were analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM).

Findings

Of the three IS success factors, namely, systems quality, information quality and service quality, the former two are found to have significant correlation with trust. Dispositional trust has a substantial relationship with institutional trust and interpersonal trust, whereas institutional trust has a significant correlation with interpersonal trust. Institutional trust exhibits direct relationship with continual use intention and eWoM, whereas interpersonal trust has a significantly correlation with only continual use intention.

Research limitations/implications

This study suggests that it is plausible that user satisfaction could act as an intermediary between service quality and trust or between service quality and continual use intention. Thus, further research studies to examine satisfaction factor and its correlation with public acceptance are encouraged.

Practical implications

Government agencies should focus on information quality and systems quality which have a significant relation with trust development. These should be more thorough and meticulous to provide complete, secure and easy-to-use e-government information. These should also facilitate eWoM because it plays an important role in disseminating e-government (services).

Originality/value

This research provides a deeper and more accurate grasp on how public participation of e-government can be improved via trust.


Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a fatal blood cancer that progresses rapidly and hinders the function of blood cells and the immune system. The current AML diagnostic method, a manual examination of the peripheral blood smear, is time consuming, labor intensive, and suffers from considerable inter-observer variation. Herein, a machine learning model to detect and classify immature leukocytes for efficient diagnosis of AML is presented. Images of leukocytes in AML patients and healthy controls were obtained from a publicly available dataset in The Cancer Imaging Archive. Image format conversion, multi-Otsu thresholding, and morphological operations were used for segmentation of the nucleus and cytoplasm. From each image, 16 features were extracted, two of which are new nucleus color features proposed in this study. A random forest algorithm was trained for the detection and classification of immature leukocytes. The model achieved 92.99% accuracy for detection and 93.45% accuracy for classification of immature leukocytes into four types. Precision values for each class were above 65%, which is an improvement on the current state of art. Based on Gini importance, the nucleus to cytoplasm area ratio was a discriminative feature for both detection and classification, while the two proposed features were shown to be significant for classification. The proposed model can be used as a support tool for the diagnosis of AML, and the features calculated to be most important serve as a baseline for future research.


With double-temporal Landsat TM and ETM+ datasets, the change information of forest resources of Culai Mountain in Shandong Province was explored. This paper applies decision tree classification based on C5.0 algorithm and neighborhood correlation image analysis to detect forest change information,and compares the three different detection methods:1)C5.0 classifies single-temporal data respectively,and extract change information after comparing classification results;2) create C5.0 train rules through double-temporal raw data,then generate change detection map;3)In addition to double-temporal remote sensing data,neighborhood correlation analysis images are also added as one of the data sources of C5.0,and generate change detection map. The experimental result shows that decision tree classification based on C5.0 algorithm can detect change information effectively,and after adding neighborhood correlation analysis images the classification accuracy of change detection was improved.


An efficiency of a refrigeration cycle and a reliability of a compressor can be reduced if a refrigerant including excessive lubricating oil is exhausted from the compressor. Thus, the analysis of the oil behavior inside the compressor is required to prevent the problem. A tested rotary compressor with visualization windows has been manufactured in this study to investigate the oil behavior using developed visualization techniques. The oil behaviors at various operating conditions have been quantified to obtain the relationship with the outlet pressure inside the compressor. Also, the effect of the operating conditions on the quantity of the exhausted oil from the rotary compressor has been investigated using a manufactured test model.


Background: Cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention guidelines typically dichotomise patients by history of CVD, as patients with prior CVD are assumed to be at high CVD risk, whatever their CVD risk profiles. Objective: To assess the appropriateness of this practice by comparing CVD event rates of patients with and without prior CVD, over and above risk predicted by standard CVD risk factors. Methods: Between 2002 and 2007 CVD risk assessments were generated using a web-based Framingham risk prediction algorithm in routine primary care. Individual risk profiles were subsequently linked to national hospitalisation and death records. Observed and predicted (Framingham) CVD risk were compared in patients with and without prior CVD. Results: 35 760 patients were assessed including 10.4% with prior CVD. Of 1216 first CVD events during an average follow-up of 2.05 years, 42% occurred in those with prior CVD. Among those without prior CVD, the predicted Framingham five-year CVD risk was similar to the observed risk extrapolated to five years; in the highest Framingham risk band (>20% five-year risk), observed risk was 25.3%. Among those with prior CVD the observed risk extrapolated to five years rose from 21.7% in the lowest Framingham risk band (<5%) to 49% in the highest (>20%). Conclusions: Patients with prior CVD have five-year CVD risks approximately 20% higher, in absolute terms than patients without prior CVD, after accounting for standard risk factors. Almost half the CVD events occurred in those with prior CVD. These patients should be the highest priority for intensive preventive management in primary care.


This paper details the use of neural network technologies in the characterization of bit fail patterns occurring on SRAM chips as an alternative to the more traditional rule-based or knowledge-based approach to fail-pattern occurrence and classification analysis. The results of bit fail pattern count analyses are used both for fault analysis post-processing and manufacturing yield improvement methodologies. The move toward neural network implementation comes in response to prohibitively long processing times required for implementation of rule-based algorithms on more complex devices and the added flexibility of a neural network to learn new fail types in a more adaptive mode. An unsupervised approach to fail pattern identification was implemented on a 128 K SRAM chip using a two-layer Kohonen Self Organizing Map for identification and concurrence of bit fail pattern categories within SRAM chips. A second network utilized a multilayer perceptron (MLP) architecture with backpropagation of error for prediction of the number of occurrences per bitmap of each of the 34 previously identified shape types. The MLP used the output of a SOM as its input vector to assist in the feature extraction by shape type. Both trained networks out-performed existing rule-based algorithms both in ability to identify bit fail pattern types, frequency counts, and speed of processing. >


Introduction In the UK, the number of patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) far exceeds the capacity of MS specialist nurses (MSSNs). Methods Biogen and IQVIA developed a remote, nurse-led, script-based telephone line to provide educational assistance and support treatment adherence among adult RRMS patients receiving delayed-release dimethyl fumarate (DMF). In the year following DMF initiation, 8 calls are scheduled over the first 3 months, followed by 3 quarterly calls. An optional online satisfaction survey was added to the program in July 2017. Results Based on summarized call data from March 2015 through November 2018, 1204 patients were enrolled from 136 UK hospitals, with a mean (median, range) of 8.5 (2, 1–168) patients/hospital. An average of 10.8 calls/patient were received. Across 11 scheduled calls, average time/call was 13 minutes. Over this period, cumulative reported DMF discontinuation among enrolled patients was 12.7%. Between July 2017 and September 2018, 76% of survey responders treated for ≥1 year (n=78) would recommend the service (score ≥5, scale: 1 [not at all] to 7 [extremely likely]). Conclusion This program has been widely used and positively received across the UK by DMF-treated patients and should help reduce the burden on MSSNs. Support: Biogen. Disclosures to be presented on poster.


The selection of an appropriate range of doses is critical in drug self-administration, since the number of self-administrations and dose levels of a drug is interrelated, forming an inverted U-shape. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the dose to produce the reinforcing effect and that of gross behavioral effects, in order to determine dose ranges of a drug to assess the reinforcing effect. For assessing the reinforcing effect, the dose that was most frequently self-administered was explored in intravenous self-administration experiments in rhesus monkeys under a fixed ratio 5 schedule with a 1 min timeout after each administration for 2 h daily. For the gross behavioral effects, the minimum effective dose following cumulative dosing was observed. The most frequently self-administered dose levels were 0.016 and 0.064 mg/kg/infusion in cocaine, 0.25 and 0.5 mg/kg/infusion in pentobarbital, 0.016 and 0.063 mg/kg/ infusion in pentazocine, 0.001 and 0.004 mg/kg/infusion in nicotine and 0.256 mg/kg/infusion in caffeine. These dose levels were 1/250-1/8 of the minimum effective doses in gross behavioral observations. Thus, it is suggested that a broad dose-range, less than the minimum effective doses in the gross behavioral observations, should be used in intravenous self-administration experiments for assessing the reinforcing effect of a drug.


In Information Gap Decision Theory (IGDT) a system is said to be robust to uncertainty if specified goals are achieved with satisfaction despite large info-gaps. Under this theory an info-gap expresses the disparity between what is known and unknown in structures for which uncertainty is judged as severe. We discuss how robustness in IGDT can be merged with a perspective on risk which allows for descriptions and characterisations of risk on the basis of broad uncertainty assessments. Robustness in IGDT is found to be related to a combination of a measure of uncertainty in consequences of a decision and a judgement of strength in knowledge underlying the quantification of this uncertainty. Thus an info-gap is a way to quantify a type of second order uncertainty. We suggest that it would be possible to view the "level of uncertainty" α in the info-gap model as the decision maker's "level of sensitivity to strength in knowledge". Robustness (Formula presented.) is then describing how sensitive the assessor can be to strength in knowledge and still be confident that this is an acceptable decision. (Less)


Cancer patients diagnosed with solid tumors and undergoing a first course of chemotherapy were randomized to either conventional care or a 10 contact 20 week cognitive behavioral intervention designed to reduce emotional distress. Three hypotheses were tested. First, a test for a group effect found that patients in the intervention who entered the trial with higher symptom severity reported significantly lower depression at 10 but not 20 weeks. Patients in the experimental group who entered with higher depression were more depressed at 10 weeks than patients in the control group. The second hypothesis compared the intervention in two sub‐indices of symptom severity; one comprised of symptoms with a depressive component, the other of symptoms not associated with depression. The intervention was more effective in lowering depression at 10 weeks through an interaction with the non‐depressive symptom sub‐index. At 20 weeks, a significant main effect for the intervention on depression was observed. No interaction with either sub‐index was observed. The third hypothesis found no main or interaction effect between psychotropic drugs and the intervention. In conclusion, behavioral interventions may influence depression differently over time. Initially, the intervention lowered depression through certain symptoms and only later did it effect depression directly. Symptoms with an affective component are relatively unaffected by the intervention which was independent of the presence of psychotropic medications. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This symposium presented recent progress of the pathogenesis and treatment of colorectal cancer (CRC). Field cancerization by modified stem cells may be the earliest changes associated with CRC. CD34+‐immature myeloid cells are deeply involved in CRC invasion. Inflammatory mediators stimulate cancer progression. We must strive for a better understanding of the molecular mechanisms responsible for this connection. Serial analysis of gene expression data analysis has identified novel biomarkers for cancer detection and possible prognosis. Better endoscopic techniques are suitable for early detection and resection of colonic lesions. Chemoprevention of CRC using sulindac and aberrant crypt foci as a clinical endpoint have shown glutathione S‐transferase π as a possible new target. A new drug delivery system using nanoparticles is being developed with SN‐38, a biologically active metabolite of irinotecan. Survival of Japanese male patients with CRC is the best in the world due to lymph node dissection and surveillance. The use of laparoscopic surgery has increased, especially for advanced cancer. A treatment trial by the Sanin Study Group suggests that modified 5‐fluorouracil and leucovorin with oxaliplatin treatment could be carried out in elderly patients. A great deal of information for understanding carcinogenesis and treatment has provided us with novel strategies for the management and prevention of CRC. (Cancer Sci 2009; 100: 978–981)


The oral corpus of recorded conversations with displaced persons from Kosovo
 and Metohija was formed in 2003. The transcript of a three-hour conversation
 with a female interlocutor originally from the environs of Suva Reka
 (Metohija) has been subjected to discourse analysis, an oft-used technique
 within linguistic anthropology. The focus of the contribution is on the
 interlocutor's ways of expressing time. Her autobiographical discourse, as
 well as that of displaced persons from Kosovo and Metohija in general, shows
 that the war/bombing/displacement functions as a temporal divide, as a time
 marker in relation to which the past, present and future are expressed. The
 results of this pilot study into time expressions may be used as the
 starting point in studying the entire oral corpus.


Modern native and web-based games and applications continue to push the boundaries of production quality and interactive complexity. Tools and techniques traditionally reserved for large teams building state-of-the-art gaming applications are now becoming the tools of choice for small game and application developers. Thanks to recent advances in motion control, developers can immerse users in a natural interface controlled directly by their bodies, which can be mapped with stunning real-time accuracy into the virtual space.
 This course combines the powerful and versatile Unity3D engine with the Leap Motion Controller to demonstrate a modern toolkit for developing consumer-accessible next-gen 3D applications. Through a series of live-coded examples, attendees will be grounded in the fundamentals of using the Unity3D engine for game and application development, integrating the Leap Motion Controller into an application, and designing and developing a next-generation 3D interactive application with motion control. Attendees need not have advanced knowledge of 3D game engines or motion control, though an understanding of C# or similar languages, along with some knowledge of basic linear algebra concepts, will be useful. The course will also cover broader issues around motion-control interaction design.
 As natural interface technologies are on the rise, the question of input is taking on an increasingly important role. In this diverse interface landscape, devices like the Oculus Rift, Sifteo, Leap Motion Controller, PS Move, Kinect, and others present unique challenges to developers, as choices about interaction aesthetics begin with the crucial question of input hardware.


In this dissertation a new way of thinking in the validation of simulation model methods in production and logistics systems is presented. The focus is on finding the most important parameters for the validation of simulation models, the relationships between these parameters in the form of correlations which influence the complexity of the models, the required availability of data for these parameters, and the uncertainty which is largely dependent on data availability. Further, a short assessment is made of sequential bifurcation as a method for model validation in the context of finding important parameters, reducing complexity, and exploring uncertainties.


Arecent study identified genuine tubulin proteins, BtubA and BtubB, in the bacterial genus Prosthecobacter. We have expressed BtubA and BtubB in Escherichia coli and studied their in vitro assembly. BtubB by itself formed rings with an outer diameter of 35–36 nm in the presence of GTP or GDP. Mixtures of BtubB and BtubA formed long protofilament bundles, 4–7 protofilaments wide (20–30 protofilaments in the three-dimensional bundle). Regardless of the starting stoichiometry, the polymers always contained equal concentrations of BtubA and BtubB, suggesting that BtubA and B alternate along the protofilament. BtubA showed negligible GTP hydrolysis, whereas BtubB hydrolyzed 0.40 mol GTP per min per mol BtubB. This GTPase activity increased to 1.37 per min when mixed 1:1 with BtubA. A critical concentration of 0.4–1.0 μM was indicated by light scattering experiments and extrapolation of GTPase versus concentration, thus suggesting a cooperative assembly mechanism.


This paper seeks to contribute to the ongoing debate in universities about literacy, the link between writing and academic success, and writing in specific disciplines. It reports the major phases in the design and imple- mentation of a team-taught curriculum which integrated two half courses in writing and philosophy. The major objective was to develop philo- sophical literacy among students as a groundwork for future humanities courses. The unifying motif was "dialogue" which facilitated the negoti- ation between two members of faculty with different areas of expertise, the concept of philosophy as dialogue, and the student-teacher relation- ship as dialogue. Comments are made about some of the difficulties and uncertainties which students experienced initially, as well as certain modifications which were made to the curriculum. The successful com- pletion of a wide range of differentiated tasks and the major assignment, a complex argumentative research paper, indicated the extent to which students had achieved the goal of philosophical literacy. The experiment raised a number of challenging theoretical and pedagogical questions, some of which are answered in the final section of the paper, while oth- ers still need to be researched.


Many speaker diarization systems operate in an off-line mode. Such systems typically find homogeneous segments and then cluster these segments according to speaker. Such algorithms, like bottom-up clustering, k-means or spectral clustering, generally require the registration of all segments before clustering can begin. However, for real-time applications such as with multi-person voice interactive systems, there is a need to perform online speaker assignment in a strict left-to-right fashion. In this paper we propose a novel Maximum a Posteriori (MAP) adapted transform within an i-vector speaker diarization framework, that operates in a strict left-to-right fashion. Previous work by the community has shown that the principal components of variation of fixed dimensional i-vectors learned across segments tend to indicate a strong basis by which to separate speakers. However, determining this basis can be problematic when there are few segments or when operating in an online manner. The proposed method blends the prior with the estimated subspace as more i-vectors are observed. Given oracle SAD segments, with adaptation we achieve 3.2% speaker diarization error for a strict left-to-right constraint on the LDC Callhome English Corpus compared to 4.8% without adaptation.


Abstract The WikiLeaks affair and proposed copyright bills introduced in the Senate are evidence of a new, extralegal path of attack aimed at preventing access and disrupting the payment systems and advertising of targeted sites. In this model, the attacker may be a government agency seeking to circumvent constitutional constraints on its power or a private company trying to enforce its interests beyond those afforded by procedural or substantive safeguards in the law. The vector of attack runs through the targeted site's critical service providers, disrupting technical services, such as Domain Name System service, cloud storage, or search capabilities; and business-related services, such as payment systems or advertising. The characteristics that make this type of attack new are that it targets an entire site, rather than aiming for removal or exclusion of specific offending materials; operates through denial of business and financial systems, in addition to targeting technical systems; and systematically harnesses extralegal pressure to achieve results beyond what law would provide or even permit.


STUDY OBJECTIVES
People with insomnia complain of cognitive deficits in daily life. Results from empirical studies examining associations between insomnia and cognitive impairment, however, are mixed. Research is needed that compares treatment-seeking and community-based insomnia study samples, measures subjective as well as objective cognitive functioning, and considers participants' pre-insomnia cognitive function.

DESIGN AND PARTICIPANTS
We used data from the Dunedin Study, a representative birth cohort of 1,037 individuals, to examine whether insomnia in early midlife was associated with subjective and objective cognitive functioning. We also tested whether individuals with insomnia who reported seeking treatment for their sleep problems (treatment-seekers) showed greater impairment than other individuals with insomnia (non-treatment-seekers). The role of key confounders, including childhood cognitive ability and comorbid health conditions, was evaluated.

MEASUREMENTS
Insomnia was diagnosed at age 38 according to DSM-IV criteria. Objective neuropsychological assessments at age 38 included the WAIS-IV IQ test, the Wechsler Memory Scale, and the Trail-Making Test. Childhood cognitive functioning was assessed using the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised (WISC-R).

RESULTS
A total of 949 cohort members were assessed for insomnia symptoms and other study measures at age 38. Although cohort members with insomnia (n = 186, 19.6%) had greater subjective cognitive impairment than their peers at age 38, they did not exhibit greater objective impairment on formal testing. Treatment-seekers, however, exhibited significant objective impairment compared to non-treatment-seekers. Controlling for comorbidity, daytime impairment, and medications slightly decreased this association. Childhood cognitive deficits antedated the adult cognitive deficits of treatment-seekers.

CONCLUSIONS
Links between insomnia and cognitive impairment may be strongest among individuals who seek clinical treatment. Clinicians should take into account the presence of complex health problems and lower premorbid cognitive function when planning treatment for insomnia patients.


In this study, the researchers examined the conditions under which a school can create and enact effective shared vision. A method of triangulation was used to find schools that identified as having strong shared vision, and that were open to discussing their conditions. Two focus groups were interviewed, and commonalities in underlying conditions were identified through keyword searches and a thematic analysis. Both schools revealed common themes that were categorized as Transformational Leadership, Distributed Leadership, Collaboration and Values. The researchers also noted the interplay between formal and informal leadership rather than a top-down or bottom up approach to creating and enacting vision. The researchers concluded that recreating the ideal conditions does not ensure effective vision, it simply sets the scene for success if pursued.


The melanoma-associated antigen ME491 is expressed strongly during the early stages of tumor progression. The ME491 gene was molecularly cloned by means of DNA-mediated gene transfer followed by screening a X genomic library with human repetitive Alu sequences as a probe. The cloned DNA, after transfection into mouse I .-cells, generated a protein with characteristics that were indistinguishable in Western blot analysis from the ME491 antigen expressed by human melanoma cells. Repeatfree subfragments of the cloned DNA were used for further studies. By Northern blot analysis, the subfragments detected a single 1.2-kilobase mRNA in the transformants and various human melanoma cell lines. ME491 complementary DNA clones were then obtained by probing a melanoma complementary DNA library with the genomic subfragments. Nucleotide sequence analysis of the cloned complementary DNA indi cated that the ME491 antigen consists of 237 amino acids (M, 25,475) with four transmembrane regions and three putative JV-glycosylation sites. No significant structural homology was observed with other proteins thus far reported. We observed that the amounts of mRNA varied greatly with different melanoma cell lines. Southern blot analysis revealed no amplification or rearrangement of the ME491 gene in the human mela noma cell lines tested, including both high and low expressors of this antigen. The ME491 gene has been mapped to chromosome region 12pl2—»12ql3by somatic cell hybrid analysis and more narrowly local ized to 12ql2-»12ql4 by in situ hybridization.


Advocacy intervention has been shown to be efficacious at reducing depressive symptoms in women who suffer from intimate partner violence (IPV). However, the intervention effect among abused immigrant women has not been well studied. This study compares the demographic and psychosocial characteristics between abused immigrant and nonimmigrant women, and evaluates the impact of immigration status on the efficacy of an advocacy intervention in reducing depressive symptoms and improving perceived social support. Two hundred abused Chinese women recruited from a local community center in Hong Kong were randomized to receive either the advocacy intervention or usual care. The advocacy intervention was found to be effective at reducing depressive symptoms and improving social support for abused Chinese nonimmigrant women, but the same effects were not seen for abused immigrant women. The findings provide essential insights into the need for developing targeted and efficacious advocacy interventions for abused immigrant women. Effective services to address abused immigrant women's needs were also suggested.


The Slaton Slatonite is the weekly paper for the town of Slaton in Lubbock County, Texas. It has been in continuous publication since 1911.


Based on regional climate model simulations conducted with RegCM3
and NCEP Reanalyses, the impact of anomalous climate forcing on environmental
vulnerability to wildfire occurrence in Africa is analyzed by applying the
Potential Fire Index (PFI). Three
different model-based vegetation distributions were analyzed for a present day
simulation (1980-2000) and for the end of the twenty-first century (2080-2100).
It was demonstrated that under current climate and vegetation conditions the PFI is able to reproduce the principal
fire risk areas which are concentrated in the Sahelian region from December to
March, and in subtropical Africa from July to October. Predicted future changes
in vegetation lead to substantial modifications in magnitude of the PFI, particularly for the southern and
subtropical region of Africa. The impact of climate changes other than through
vegetation, was found to induce more moderate changes in the fire risk, and
increase the area vulnerable to fire occurrence in particular in sub-Saharan.
The PFI reproduces areas with high
fire activity, indicating that this index is a useful tool for forecasting fire
occurrence worldwide, because it is based on regionally dependent vegetation
and climate factors.


Philosophy of education is variously understood; to some, it is the discipline in education that gets at 'big questions' or 'first things,' i.e. metaphysical and moral grounds, principles, and rules that purport to provide a foundation for teaching and learning, the curriculum, and schools. To others, it is a system that helps us to interpret scientific and social-scientific findings and put these in the context of persons, community, society, and (especially) politics. These two positions (and there are others) are not mutually exclusive. In this discussion, I will draw on both of these (disciplines and systems) as I discuss the role philosophy of education might play in discussions of the education of immigrant and refugee students in Newfoundland and Labrador (hereafter NL).


This paper presents results from a laboratory study to identify a performance-based acceptance test for hot asphalt mixtures when constructing airport pavements designed to accommodate high-tyre-pressure traffic. Four performance tests, intended to screen for rutting susceptibility, were performed on 26 hot mix asphalt (HMA) mixtures using one neat binder. Eight of these mixtures were also prepared with a polymer-modified binder. Results from four candidate tests are presented: asphalt pavement analyzer, triaxial creep, triaxial repeated load, and dynamic modulus test. Preliminary criteria associated with these tests that can be used to screen or select airport HMA paving mixtures are proposed. The efficacy of the screening tests and associated criteria were evaluated by constructing and trafficking full-scale pavements using an accelerated pavement tester.


If the Federalist Society is associated with a single word, it is "originalism." Although well-known for its noble efforts to encourage freedom of thought and debate in law schools (and among lawyers), the Society's own thoughts and debates have revolved primarily around originalism; and the Society is probably best known for its members' embrace, propagation, and defense of that concept. In a Federalist Society symposium, Chief Judge Frank Easterbrook once proposed that the opponents of originalism be called "inventionists." (1) The neologism did not catch on, alas. But didn't "originalism" itself have to be invented? It is not a term used by the framers and ratifiers of the United States Constitution, for example, though they knew of course its source words (origin, original, and so on). Those words denote two rather different things: an "original" is closest to the origin (the words were once synonyms), the first of its kind, the oldest example (and thus distinguished from later copies); but to be "original" is also to be new, pathbreaking, creative (and thus not a copy of anything previous). An original can be old or new. As the doctrine defended today by the Federalist Society and by American conservatives in general, originalism is a new term for fidelity to something old, namely, the Constitution. But liberals and other critics of such originalism will object that that old Constitution was once new; indeed, that it was once the culmination or the terminal moment of a political revolution. They will point out that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and that true "originalism" should therefore include approaching the interpretation of the Constitution in a bold, new, creative spirit, even as its framers had approached the Articles of Confederation. (2) In effect, fidelity to the Constitution, properly understood, should mean making it new, surpassing it, leaving it gradually behind in pursuit of more timely and progressive modes of government and administration. Franklin D. Roosevelt and other liberal political leaders used to talk like that, and appeals to the American founders' pragmatic, forward-looking spirit still echo occasionally in our politics and even in the academy. But such sentiments are rarer than they used to be for the simple reason that modern liberals' opinion of the Constitution and its framers is lower, or at any rate more crudely expressed, than it used to be. (3) Exponents of the progressive or evolutionary Constitution used to emphasize its continuity with the past; evolution, after all, is supposed to connect the best of the past with the present. Today, by contrast, it is common to hear, especially from political figures who do not have to stand for election, that the Constitution comes from "a world that is dead and gone." (4) They mean that the Constitution would be dead and gone, or at least irrelevant, like the eighteenth-century world from which it sprang, had it not been infused with new meaning(s) vouchsafed by subsequent, more enlightened ages. Since its proximate origins in the Progressive Movement early in the twentieth century, American liberalism has taken a jaundiced view of the Constitution. The most famous of the so-called Progressive historians--especially Charles Beard, Vernon Parrington, and J. Allen Smith--regarded the American Revolution as a nascent social revolution, the beginnings of an egalitarian democratic order that would liberate, and empower, the interests of the vast majority of Americans who were farmers, artisans, and laborers. According to the historians, this powerful impulse towards social democracy arose not so much from the theory of the Revolution as contained, say, in the Declaration of Independence and the colonists' earlier protests against the British parliament, but mainly from the deeds or actions of revolution itself. As the majority discovered its power in street demonstrations and legislative halls, it discovered itself as a social force capable of standing against domestic as well as foreign elites. …


Since its establishment, the IMF has been subject to constant interest from both academic circles and the media. Of the three types of the IMF's functions (regulatory, consultative, and financial), the latter - particularly the provision of temporary balance of payments support in the upper tranches with high conditionality - appear to have gained most of this interest. The fundamental and controversial feature of the IMF's financial assistance is found in the concept of conditionality, which is the subject matter of this study. Critics often point out that IMF conditionality is imposed upon borrowing countries against their will. However, the IMF and its supporters have responded with the notion of ownership of IMF conditionality. This study focuses upon this controversy. The research investigates the controversial nature of IMF conditionality with a case study of Egypt. In particular, it deals with the issue of imposition-ownership. Unlike the two opposing schools which see the nature of IMF conditionality as a matter of either imposition or ownership, the study argues that IMF conditionality can involve both elements. In capturing such a perspective regarding the nature of IMF conditionality, the study utilises the notion of the linear spectrum, at the opposing ends of which the elements of imposition and ownership are located. Their relative degrees can be assessed through the negotiation process rather than focusing on either the initial position of the parties or the final outcome. The nature of IMF conditionality can be examined with the aid of the concept of power, which distinguishes between resources and application. The relative power of the party can, in turn, help determine the degree of imposition and ownership on the imposition-ownership spectrum. The study further suggests that relative degrees of power, and the consequent location on the imposition- ownership spectrum, are not static but may vary during the course of negotiations, or indeed between negotiations.


This study explores how deindustrialization is influencing the labour market in El Salvador. The variables under analysis are disaggregated by sex in order to permit an analysis of the differences in the ways that women and men react to deindustrialization. The results indicate that deindustrialization has led to a decline in quality employment and an upswing in self-employment, at the same time that the female labour force participation rate has risen and the male participation rate has fallen. This all occurred in parallel with the economic measures introduced in the 1990s and reflects the role that women have assumed in order to safeguard the well-being of their families. Deindustrialization has also been associated with increasing violence, since it paves the way for an increase in poor-quality jobs. This article concludes by underscoring the importance of reinstating tariff protections and supporting a reindustrialization process, together with regional integration, gender equality and education.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to characterize the clinical and electrophysiological findings of epilepsy originating from the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) as well as its surgical outcomes.

METHODS
The authors retrospectively reviewed 27 consecutive cases of patients with drug-resistant orbitofrontal epilepsy (OFE) who underwent tailored resective surgery after a detailed presurgical workup. Demographic features, seizure semiology, imaging characteristics, resection site, pathological results, and surgical outcomes were analyzed. Patients were categorized according to semiology. The underlying neural network was further explored through quantitative FDG-PET and ictal stereo-electroencephalography (SEEG) analysis at the group level. FDG-PET studies between the semiology group and the control group were compared using a voxel-based independent t-test. Ictal SEEG was quantified by calculating the energy ratio (ER) of high- and low-frequency bands. An ER comparison between the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) and the amygdala was performed to differentiate seizure spreading patterns in groups with different semiology.

RESULTS
Scalp electroencephalography (EEG) and MRI were inconclusive to a large extent. Patients were categorized into the following 3 semiology groups: the frontal group (n = 14), which included patients with hyperactive automatisms with agitated movements; the temporal group (n = 11), which included patients with oroalimentary or manual automatisms; and the other group (n = 2), which included patients with none of the abovementioned or indistinguishable manifestations. Patients in the frontal and temporal groups (n = 23) or in the frontal group only (n = 14) demonstrated significant hypometabolism mainly across the ipsilateral OFC, ACC, and anterior insula (AI), while patients in the temporal group (n = 9) had hypometabolism only in the OFC and AI. The ER results (n = 15) suggested distinct propagation pathways that allowed us to differentiate between the frontal and temporal groups. Pathologies included focal cortical dysplasia, dysembryoplastic neuroepithelial tumor, cavernous malformation, glial scar, and nonspecific findings. At a minimum follow-up of 12 months, 19 patients (70.4%) were seizure free, and Engel class II, III, and IV outcomes were observed in 4 patients (14.8%), 3 patients (11.1%), and 1 patient (3.7%), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
The diagnosis of OFE requires careful presurgical evaluation. Based on their electrophysiological and metabolic evidence, the authors propose that varied semiological patterns could be explained by the extent of involvement of a network that includes at least the OFC, ACC, AI, and temporal lobe. Tailored resections for OFE may lead to a good overall outcome.


Work has multiple important implications for individuals, social life and societies. "Work enables people to earn a livelihood and be economically secure. It is critical for equitable economic growth, poverty reduction and gender equality. It also allows people to fully participate in society while affording them a sense of dignity and worth." ('Human development report', 2015, p. 1) This special issue takes as it starting point the observation that there is an increase in transitions not only between workplaces but also between the status of being employed and being unemployed. The contributions in this special issue deal empirically with the questions of how increased demands on the successful management of transitions into work are negotiated discursively, how social work organisations deal with these issues, how the demands are experienced from the point of view of young people, and what chances they entail.